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Walk into any Tokyo-based CD megastore and makeyour way to the "Western Music" section. This is the broadest genre ever created, encompassing mainstream American pop but also electronic obscurities like drone-pop producer Inga Copeland or the Belgian electro-collagistSsaliva. These left-field quirks sit alongside major-label bangers (including Skrillex and Tiesto, for comparison) in music stores throughout Japan thanks to the work of a single fanatic on a one-man mission tobring niche music from around the globe to the Japanese masses.
Shimpei Kaiho is a Tokyo-based music scene veteran, a diehard experimental music fan who foundedMelting Bot, a self-described "platform" for fringe electronic music thatfunctions as label, PR house, and event promotion unit. Asof 2015, Melting Bot has re-issued dozens of releases from the catalogues ofroughly 30 independent labels from around the world, including cult favoritesfrom New York and London like RVNG INTL, Software, and Night Slugs. Kaihoalso curates an event series under Melting Bot called Bond-Aid, showcasingnon-Japanese artists such as PAN records founder Bill Kouligas andCalifornia-based techno act D/P/I alongside up-and-coming Japanese producers in hopes of introducing like-minded musicians andaudiences to one another.
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Kaiho is a rare breed in Tokyo. He's oneof the few people in Japan who not only has made it his life's work to explorethe fringes of Western and Japanese music, but he's aiming to bring them closertogetheror at least spark a greater dialogue between the two. There's so much good musicbeing made around the world, but even in the age of the internet, sometimes you need a guide to separate the goods from the crap. VICE sat down with the man bringingleft-field techno to Tokyo to discuss the story behind Melting Bot, as well as Japan's rich history of avant-garde music scenes.
VICE: You started as a fan, butnow you personally promote this largely unknown music within Japan. Is that position of being a tastemaker something youintentionally sought out?
Shimpei Kaiho: I didn't intentionally set out to orchestrate some big gesture.When I started out, there were a lot of good labels that I really liked thatweren't getting any placement here, so I reached out and asked to re-issue anddistribute various records. Over time, the work continued to compile and theidentity of Melting Bot expanded. At the start, to be 100-precent honest, I was justserving as . I'm on the ground you know, so I can totally appreciatethe scope of that drop. When I first started Melting Bot... Well, I can't say theexact numbers, but basically our sales are practically a third of what theyused to be, and continue to drop with increasing speed.
In the face of thatreality, how do you see Melting Bot surviving?
One thing is pushing back to the outside: Not only importingsounds from outside Japan, but also exporting the local sounds outside thecountry. I think this is something Melting Bot is capable of doing. Then thereis the event that I do through Melting Bot called Bond-Aid. I think out ofeverything I do, Bond-Aid is the most important.
What exactly is it?
Around three years ago, I started thinking that the real valuefrom the local scene was in live performance and that direct exchange. I reallyneed to start organizing an event. Little by little, I started hosting thisBond-Aid event. This became Melting Pot's direction, using the event as apreliminary step to then distribute foreign artists' CDs and doing their PR inTokyo. The next event,the seventh in the series, will feature Inga Copeland and Lorenzo Senni. Thename itself references the idea of aiding the bonding process among disparatecreators and packaging it all together as one unique type of content. It takesthe jumble of artists and ideas that comprise Melting Bot, and connect the dotsas a live experience.
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Similar to the decrease inmusic sales in Japan, do you think the number of underground music fans isdecreasing?
That's tough to answer. I think the world, generally, valuesJapan's avant-garde output over its pop. Today, the artists are spread out, andeven in Tokyo these tiny scenes exist in a vacuum. Every major city in Japan hasan underground music scene, but we're talking crazy small ones, collections of30 to 50 people.
I don't think decreasing is the right word; I think they are waymore scattered. There are more creators now than there were before, due to theinternet, but if these pockets of culture aren't directly tied to your personalcircle, it's like they don't even exist in the physical world.
Do you attribute this tothe local cultural traditions? That people don't push themselves out there andkeep things to themselves?
In the past, the process of putting out a record almost bydefault meant that you had to connect with someone. The same for events. Now,with Soundcloud and social media, maybe you don't need an in-person connectionfor your music to be published. Events too have fallen under a similar light,with way fewer people are coming out than before. In the past you had to go toa club to hear a DJ mix, but now the net offers a bounty to that end, so maybepeople here are just satisfied with that because that in itself is funlikethere is no need to experience something directly in a spatial sense.
Isn't that an issue foryou from the perspective of Bond-Aid?
Yeah, totally huge. But when I started Bond-Aid, the thing Ithought was exciting was how, rather than just releasing something from abroad,creating a kind of content that was truly unique, really taking the local andthe foreign and bringing something new into existence was the most interestingpart of organizing this type of event for me. Something truly original, thatreally only happens there at that location. That to me has a very real socialvalue and real meaning, and that translates to attendance.
How do you feel aboutturning your own personal interests and passions into a career?
As someone who is trying to make a living off of this passion,it's a matter beyond me wanting to do this, to promote music and put on events: It's a matter of needing to. I think if I didn't have this, I would live a much lazierexistence. That necessity to keep pushing forward wouldn't be there.
Even for me, trying to make music a business doesn't sit as thebest scenario, especially for independent music. I used to be opposed to theidea of existing off of money made through music, but then I reached thisdramatic point where I thought, if I don't do this I'll die! You know, thatleads you to listen to a ton of music, more than anyone normally would listento. It leads you to dig deeper and connect with everyone.
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